Abstract
The Bale Mountains of Ethiopia have a global conservation significance which contains a number of unique plants and animal species. The study was conducted to analyze the influence of topographic aspect on biomass and soil carbon stock in case of Bale Mountain national park. Simple random sampling method was used to collect soil and vegetation samples. The sample was laid on two main areas of Bale Mountain (South and North aspect). The total of 20 composite samples were collected from the study area for the year 2017 and 60 soil samples was collected from 2016. During carbon stock measurement the data collection were takes place in to two major activities, (1) Above-ground tree biomass (2) Soil organic carbon measurements. The result showed that, there was a significance difference in soil organic carbon among two aspects. The Northern aspect has 13.12kg/ m -2 and Southern aspect was 10.04km/ m-2 . There was also a significance difference in average diameter of Erica plant species. There is a significant difference in the total N and SOC in both aspects, the Northern aspect has higher total carbon stock (11.4607) than the Southern aspects (11.0116). But the nitrogen of Northern aspect (0.7005) is lower than the Southern aspect (0.8109). Immediate action should be taken on land use conversion and human settlement problems of study area and biodiversity conservation works should be developed and facilitated. Keywords: Bale Mountain, Biomass, Carbon stock, Topographic aspect, Ethiopia DOI: 10.7176/JEES/12-2-01 Publication date: February 28 th 2022
Highlights
Ethiopia features extensive high mountain ecosystems, which represent ecological islands in a tropical to subtropical lowland matrix with differing climate and high land use pressure
The overall aim of this study was to analyze the influence of topographic aspect on biomass and soil carbon stock in case of Bale Mountain national park, Ethiopia
Soil organic carbon and total nitrogen stock were significantly different among two aspects (Southern and Northern aspect) on Bale Mountain
Summary
Background Ethiopia features extensive high mountain ecosystems, which represent ecological islands in a tropical to subtropical lowland matrix with differing climate and high land use pressure. Mountains cover about 43% of the surface of Ethiopia (Woldemariam 1990, cutoff at a1,500 m asl). These mountains harbor a remarkable diversity of endemic fauna and flora. The mountain climate is more favorable for many species relative to the lowlands where arid to semiarid environments predominate (Hillmann, 1990; Messerli et al, 1990). It used as home to the largest population of the endangered endemic Ethiopian wolf (Canis simensis) and of Mountain Nyala (Sillero-Zubiri et al, 1997). The endemic plant populations of mountains are important reservoirs of genetic diversity (Hillman, 1988; NBSAP, 2005). The mountains support numerous ecosystem services for lowland areas including capture, distribution, and regulation of the water supply (Kidane et al, 2012)
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